Horse Whorls

A pattern to predict behaviour?

Story by Mary MacArthur.

Call it a swirl, whorl or cow lick, the twisted hair pattern, often on an animal’s head, is like an individual fingerprint, or as some people believe, an indicator of the animal’s temperament and personality.

According to Noche Miller, author of the book Understanding Horse Whorls and administrator of the Facebook page Equine Swirls/Whorls Study, swirls above the eye indicate a horse will be smart, energetic and outgoing. A swirl to the right shows a right-brained horse who is reactive, emotional, nervous or defensive. A swirl below the eye indicates an introvert or a horse that could be considered lazy or stubborn.

In 2017, Miller created the Facebook page to share information and science around horse whorls, the name she prefers to call the spiral hair patterns. Each day, horse owners post pictures of their horses showing the animal’s head or body whorls, and Miller offers her thoughts on the horse’s personality and temperament based on her interpretation of the whorl pattern and location.

“I give my thoughts and opinions, look at everybody else’s thoughts and opinions, learn and compare,” said Miller, of Nebraska, who became interested in whorls and horse personality during a camping trip more than 20 years ago. While on the trip, she noticed a “neurotic” horse that was tied to a trailer, had double whorls on his head.

This experience made her wonder if there was a link between the whorls and a horse’s personality, setting her on the path of investigating, documenting, developing and sharing her whorl theory.

“Looking at whorls is very important to me when I buy a horse. There is a connection between whorls and temperament,” she said, adding “specific whorls don’t indicate bad horses, just clues to figure out temperament and suitability for the rider or possible equine activity.”

Miller acknowledges that while some people put whorl studies down as superstition or folklore, it is based on long held beliefs and observations from people who work with horses on a daily basis.

One of Miller’s favourite tales is the belief that whorls on the side of the cheek will bring debt and ruin. Often the side whorls accompany teeth issues that cause jaw tension or teeth problems. “If you are trying to make a living with your horse and your horse is losing weight and getting in bad shape because their teeth are bad, of course that’s going to bring debt and ruin.”

Miller is writing a second book focused on body whorls that may give clues to an animal’s flexibility, fertility or sensitivities. While the focus of whorls has mainly been on horses, any haired animal like dogs or cattle also have whorls.

In a 1995 Applied Animal Behaviour Science publication, livestock behaviour specialist, Temple Grandin, said there could be value in selecting breeding cattle with a spiral hair whorl position on the forehead for a calm temperament. “A possible explanation for a relationship between hair whorl position and temperament is the fact that hair patterns in the fetus form at the same time the brain forms. Abnormal hair whorl patterns are found in children with developmental disorders such as Down’s Syndrome and Prader-Willi Syndrome,” she wrote.

“Cattle with spiral hair whorls high on the forehead appear to be more likely to panic during restraint compared to cattle with low spiral hair whorls,” said Grandin after studying cattle behaviour and hair whorls in a squeeze chute study.

Whether you believe in whorl theory or not (some critics point out it often does not take into consideration a horse’s training, history or experiences), it does make for an interesting study

A Tangled Tale of Witches’ Knots

Story by Vanessa Nugent

Every Halloween, families open up cupboards and pull out costumes, a favourite being the ubiquitous witch costume. We all know what witches look like thanks to the ultimate childhood villain, the Wicked Witch of the West in the Wizard of Oz. A witch wears a long black robe with a rope tied around the waist, sharp tipped shoes, a big pointy hat and cackles while riding a crooked broom stick. They are often accompanied by a familiar spirit such as a malevolent hissing black cat. She has a hook-nosed face with acid green skin, warts and all. She is scary but easily defeated with a bucket of water because she is made of sweet brown sugar.

In late October, my siblings and I would wait excitedly for the annual showing of the Wizard of Oz to appear on the tv schedule. Waiting in anticipation for a show on tv was a big deal in the 1970’s. When the night finally came and with special permission to stay up late, we would huddle in front of the hulking tv console as the butterflies in our stomachs would activate. Entranced, we waited on the edge of fear and delight for the Wicked Witch and her flying monkeys to appear – we couldn’t get enough of her. Finally, when Dorothy throws the bucket of water on the Wicked Witch, unwittingly causing her to melt, we knew that all was well in the world again, thanks to another year of televised Oz.

It was a delicious story feast for our imaginations. For days after my parents suffered from our post Oz high, as we screeched “I’m melting” while slinking into a puddle of pretend goo or chased each other around the yard lurching and whooping like flying monkeys screaming, “I’ll get you my pretty and your little dog too!”. Watching this Halloween favourite brings back so many childhood memories, such as my mother using her impressive sewing skills to make our Halloween costumes from patterns, with of course, one being the Wicked Witch. While Halloween costumes have changed a lot over the years, as have our villains and heroes, I can still count on the Wizard of Oz to connect me to the past. Released over 80 years ago in 1939, it is one of my favourite movies, not only because of the clever storytelling and colorful set design, but because of the memories I associate with it.

The fascination for villainous witch tales has a long history in folklore, appearing around the Middle Ages in association with superstitions that they are Satan’s handmaidens, casting spells to cause evil and harm. These superstitions could be quite malevolent or benignly playful, but the true harm was that they were believed. If you had the misfortune of being accused of being a witch, then chances were that you would be punished by the good citizens of your town. There was no defence against the accusation, no logic that could free you – and tests to prove innocence were rigged. One popular test tied the accused up and dropped them helpless into a body of water. If they sank, they were innocent and if they floated, well they were a witch. Either way you were doomed, especially if you were a single woman, widowed or suffering from a mental or physical illness – unprotected, you were more likely to suffer the fate of being called a witch.

One benign but delightful superstition associated with witches appearing in the Middle Ages is the belief that horses have a clairvoyant power that attracts supernatural beings such as witches and fairies. Witches appear in the nighttime, when dreams occur, and twist the horse’s hair into tangled knots to hold onto as they ride them to coven meetings. In the morning the evidence of knotted hair was a sure sign that the horse had been ridden by witches in the night. There are obviously natural reasons for these tangled hair knots, but 500 years ago, witches’ knots would have been seen as proof that witches were real and the hunt would be on. Nowadays, they make a charming and playful tale for children’s bedtime stories.

Vanessa Nugent was formally penned in the corporate world and is now living her best life in the pasture of ideas where she can forage for nature, history, art and culture.